forse è il lavoro, forse questo caldo anomalo.. o forse sono troppo vecchia x ste cose. cmq: un banale brodo allungato

riassunto spoiler
(in realtà più che un riassunto è proprio TUTTO cio che succede in 500 pagine)
Nina si fa le paranoie, salva grisha e si insinua alla corte di ghiaccio come spia
Zoya si fa le paranoie, ottiene un amplificatore Drago e una cotta x il re
Nikolai si fa le paranoie e quasi sconfigge il demone dentro di se
l'Apparat non pervenuto
l'Oscuro (morto, stramorto, arso su una pira) torna impossessandosi di un giovane monaco ( )

Reading King of Scars so soon after Shadow and Bone is such a dramatic shift in the quality of writing, proof that Bardugo has grown incredibly as a writer in the past 10 years. Everywhere that Shadow and Bone fell flat for me was improved upon in King of Scars. Though I've finished Six of Crows, King of Scars was a more dramatic shift because of returning characters and same setting.

Full rtc but I'm so excited for Rule of Wolves and seeing what else Bardugo has in store for the Grishaverse in the future. ( )

Såååå spennende!!!! Elsker å lese om undercover/spy POV!!! ( )

So mad at myself for following up the Crows duology with King of Scars, knowing now how much I liked Zoya and Nikolai in the last two books of the S&B trilogy. They read as if I was meant to love them already, but I hadn't yet! I did love the development between Nikolai and Zoya (I didn't expect to even like Zoya after Crooked but catch me with pompoms and her kefta colors on my cheeks now). Nina's storyline was pretty good, but mostly I was cooing over every time she thought about the Crows--especially when she talked about missing Inej, cuz Big Same.

I was hoping for fun, but King of Scars landed more on fine. I still enjoyed the world-building and many of the characters, but the pacing was both slow and uneven, with none of the propulsive fun of the Crows books. The Nina POV chapters were the strongest for me. I found myself really wishing that Bardugo had an editor who'd push back against her tendency to use limp Whedon-y one-liners to undercut emotion or drama. I'll read the second book in the duology, but I will go in with adjusted expectations. ( )